Eternally Together for True Love

May Not Die

The Angel of Patience

To weary heart, to mourning homes
God's meekest angel gently comes;
No power has he to banish pain,
Or give us  back our lost again;
And yet in tenderest love, our dear
And Heavenly Father sends him here
There's quiet in the angel's glance,
There's rest in his still countenance!
He mocks no grief with idle cheer,
Nor wounds with words the mourner's ear;
But ills and woes he may not cure.
He kindly trains us to endure
...John Greenleaf Whittier

What is Death?

Death is nothing at all.  I have only slipped away
into the next room.  I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other that we are still.
Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me
in the easy way which you always used.  Put no
difference in your tone.  Wear no forced air of
solemnity or sorrow.  Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was.  Let it be spoken
without effort, without trace of a
shadow on it.  Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.  There is absolute
unbroken continuity.  Why should I be out of
mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval, 
somewhere very near, just around the corner.
All is well.
Harry Scott Holland.  
Canon of Saint Paul's Cathedral
1847-1918

Safely Home

I am home in Heaven, dear ones;
Oh, so happy and so bright!
There is perfect joy and beauty
In this everlasting light.

All the pain and grief are over,
Every restless tossing passed;
I am now at peace forever,
Safely home in Heaven at last.

Did you wonder I so calmly
Trod the valley of the shade?
Oh! but Jesus' love illumined 
Every dark and fearful glade.

And He came Himself to meet me
In that way so hard to tread;
And with Jesus' arm to lean on,
Could I have one doubt or dread?

Then you must not grieve so sorely,
For I love you dearly still;
Try to look beyond earth's shadows,
Pray to trust our Father's Will.

There is work still waiting for you,
So you must not idly stand;
Do it now while life remaineth-
You shall rest in Jesus' land.

When that work is all completed,
He will gently call you Home;
Oh the rapture of that meeting,
Oh the joy to see you come!

©Danny Hahlbohm entitled GIFT FROM ABOVE
and used with his permission